Monthly Archives: October 2017

DevBlog 79 / No tricks here, only treats!

Hi everyone!

We’ve been working on the final modules for the massive puzzle in the Canyon Area, which should be finished soon enough! Here’s a beautiful scenic shot of the Canyon, taken from higher grounds.

Such Canyon, much windmill, wow!

The Elk also had a few more tweaks and polish in its behavior, including proper fear mechanics that have it getting scared and running off when enemies are nearby, which wasn’t quite working as intended before. As a result, it behaves more realistically now and helps with creating better immersion.

The Boss for this new zone is short of being completed, we’re setting up the third and last phase of its encounter, which can be harder or easier depending on how you handle the first two phases… but you’ll have to find that out for yourselves! No tips for you!

Regarding combat, we reworked and improved the Bow logic, providing a much smoother experience for those who like to grab that opportunity to land some extra damage from a safe distance before fully committing to melee combat.

Speaking of melee combat, here’s a screenshot of the Royal Guard’s high poly model… and yes, these foes will be as tough as they look, beware!

You don’t want to mess with these guys!

Thank you for reading, hope you have a great Halloween and enjoy the treat we’ve prepared for you, here goes!

Happy Halloween, Om Nom Nom!

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DevBlog 78 / Hey there, how’s it hanging?

Hi everyone!

This week we continued working on the Elk behavior and polish. The challenge was providing a smooth control and feeling inside dungeons, mounted or not. The canyon has a huge rotatory temple so dealing with ramps and slopes forced us to rework some path-finding logic.

With our animator in-house now, it has been easier to iterate the animation tree and logic. For a long time we intended to add acceleration and stopping animations when the player is in “exploration mode” (when there are no enemies around). In our prototype we had this feature but we removed it temporarily. Below is our first test:

Small run/walk acceleration and stopping animations.

Here’s a possible encounter in the dungeons!

Hey there, how’s it hanging?

Regarding the environment art, we are finally focusing on the previously mentioned dungeon. It’s a huge structure, with an overarching puzzle. Meanwhile, the outside areas are awaiting a final pass, which will include some texture variation and plenty of vegetation props. Here is a work in progress shot showing the current state of things:

Another canyon WIP view.

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DevBlog 77 / Voodoo or souvenirs?

Hi there!

This week we’ve worked on adding and improving the audio for the game, having added a lot of new sounds for the characters and even the environments, resulting into a much improved mood, which is getting close to where we want it!

Half of the team was working on a complex and intriguing boss battle, from which we can only reveal that it has two distinct participants. As such, there was plenty of work involved in both programming and in the artistic side as well. The first part of the encounter has been finalized, and we are hacking away at the second phase now!

We also took the opportunity to give some love to the Elk, the control system is being tweaked and improved so it’s much more responsive now!

Wandering in the dungeons.

The work on the canyon-like area we are currently developing is entering the final stage – texturing and detailing. After that the team will focus on the main dungeon of this location.

We really don’t want to spoil the boss fights too much, but we’re all eager to show at least some of the cool stuff everyone has been producing. So here is a little teaser for one of those important battles:

Souvenirs!

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DevBlog 76 / Dungeons &…Hold the Door!

Hi everyone!

This week we’ve added a new, simple mechanic to add more diversity to the main puzzle of the zone we are currently working on. Inspired by the Indiana Jones Movies, specifically where stone doors close slowly, you’ll have to sprint and slide in order to successfully reach the other side.
We are focused on maintaining a smooth learning curve as far as puzzles are concerned, so we’ve increased the complexity of previous puzzles in the game in order to prepare players for the challenge this latest one provides!

*Indiana Jones Music intensifies*

Using our modular dungeon system, we’ve also done some extensive dungeon building tests, however, it still remains to be decided whether we will add randomly generated dungeons or at least different layouts for them in NG+ and beyond!

Custom dungeon example.

We decided to add a new threat to the player – elite soldiers, members of the royal guard, that will surely be a tough challenge to those who dare face them. Here is the concept:

Royal Guard Concept.

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